Day 3: sprouting

My dish drainer. 

What kind of person takes pictures of their dish drainer? Well, I guess I have become that kind of person.

Pictured here are a blend of seeds--alfalfa, clover, and mustard--sprouting. They're in the jar on the top rack with the yellow lid. In the lower left of the picture is some blanched almonds soaking so I can make fresh almond milk tomorrow morning. And in the lower right jar with the green lid are some lentils soaking. Tomorrow I'll drain the water, and they'll take their place on the top rack of the dish drainer. It will take them 3 or four days to grow full sprouts that are much yummier and fresher than the ones you buy in the store.

Sprouting is really surprisingly easy. Soak about a 1/4 cup of seeds or beans in a jar for eight hours. Then drain the rinse water. Using one of these sprouting lids or some cheesecloth, rinse and then drain them 2 or more times a day. This keeps the little sprouties hydrated and clean. Always leave the jars up-side-down and at an angle so the sprouts aren't sitting in water--that makes them decay and get yucky. 3-5 days after you begin, you'll have delicious fresh sprouts!

Why eat sprouts? They are some of the most nutritionally-packed foods on the planet, and have their own enzymes that make them easy to digest. Plus it's fun. It's like I have a little tiny farm in my kitchen.

I'll post about making my own almond milk tomorrow.

What I ate:

• 9:30 AM: 1 c quinoa with a few raisins, 2 tbsp toasted flax seeds and 1/2 c almond milk
• 11:30 AM: (pre-WOD) small homemade cashew cookie bar (about the equivalent of 1 date and 1 tbsp cashews)
• 1 PM: post-WOD protein shake (1/2 an avocado, 2 dates, 1/3 c frozen blueberries, 1/4 c protein powder, 1 c almond milk and some ice). Really surprisingly good.
• 2:30 PM: I am starving! ate 1/4 c brown rice, a whole cup of steamed kale, 1 cup of lentil sprouts, 1/2 avocado and 2 tbsp tahini dressing. YUM
• 6:30 PM: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1/2 avocado, 1 apple
• 9 PM: 2 handfuls of nuts and raisins fixed my grumpy.

A lot of avocado today...the four I bought the other day all ripened at once, so I need to eat them!

2 benchmark items today!  What I exercised:

• I. Max pullups (and we weren't allowed to use bands, so I subbed ring-rows with my feet a plate's distance from the wall) = 10 reps
• II. Cindy
  5 pullups (scale to ring-rows)
  10 pushups (scale to 5 good knee pushups per round)
  15 airsquats (no scaling necessary)
  completed 13 rounds + 3 
• III. AMRAP box jumps in 2 minutes
  used a 12 inch box. completed 69 reps.

How I feel: pretty darn good. It seems to me that my stamina is improving over the past few weeks. Though the box jumps at the end brought on an asthma attack. Ain't nothin' like box jumps to make me wheeze.